Written for Tolkien_Weekly's "Cleudo" challenge series
Horns in the Distance
Hallway
Pippin halted so suddenly in the doorway between the parlor and the hallway that Pearl collided with him, and nearly sent both of them tumbling to the floor in a heap. "What's gotten into you?" she demanded, but stopped short herself, seeing him blinking back tears. "Goodness, Pippin, what's the matter?"
"Merry's nearly here," he said. "Don't you hear the horn calling?"
She did hear it, clear and loud enough to reach them even indoors. Merry did love announcing himself so.
"It reminds me of Minas Tirith," Pippin said, turning away. "And Rohan coming just in the nick of time."
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On Every Shelf
Library
It was a great deal of work to copy out the Red Book, and Sam was not at all confident in his writing—it looked worse even than Mr. Bilbo's spidery letters.
But Strider had asked for a copy for the library in Minas Tirith, and Sam couldn't very well say no to that. So he knuckled down and set to practicing, whenever he had a few spare moments.
In the end, there were many copies made by many hands. But the last one Sam made, he packed away carefully, until he left the Shire one last time, heading West.
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Family Recipes
Kitchen
Bilbo had taught Frodo dozens of recipes over the years, from seed cakes and scones to roast chicken. Some of his favorite memories from his teens and tweens took place in Bag End's expansive kitchen. Often with a dwarf smoking in the corner.
Most of those recipes, however, resided now only in Frodo's memory. So as one last Birthday Gift for Sam and Rosie, he wrote out all the best ones, and bound them together in a simple brown book, which he left in the kitchen by the window, open to let in the sunshine and breeze from the garden.
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Hidden Treasure
Secret Passage
As the last of the restoration of Bag End drew towards completion, Frodo found Sancho Proudfoot helping to panel the walls in one of the pantries. "Have you found any secret passages or hidden doors?" he asked, and laughed when Sancho's round face turned scarlet. "I thought about digging one, for a bit of fun, but of course I haven't anything to hide in it!"
"I don't suppose old Mr. Bilbo ever really had anything, either," Sancho said. "Hidden away or not."
"Why, of course he had! But it's all gone, now. Only dragons hide away and hoard their treasure."
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Herblore of the Shire
Study
"What's all this?" Esmeralda peered at the neatly stacked piles on the desk in Merry's personal study. Most of them were letters from various families in the Southfarthing, and others looked were in Merry's own handwriting, and looked like notes from books.
"I'm writing a book," Merry told her, as though it were the most natural thing in the world. "I want to trace the history of pipe-weed as far back as I can."
"Whatever for?"
Merry shrugged. "It's a way of remembering, I suppose. Anyway, he would have liked it, I think. Except in Rohan they don't have books..."
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Expanding Tastes
Cellar
The first thing Frodo did as Mayor was have the Lockholes cleaned of everything resembling a prison. And then they sat empty, no one wanting to have much to do with them or the memories they conjured, poor Will Whitfoot least of all.
When Sam was elected, he had them turned to wine cellars. Not only were the vinyards of the Shire doing increasingly well, but also the lands to the east. Ruby red Dorwinion, and sweet wines from Lossanarch were soon popular everywhere.
No one believed him, though, when he said they drank like Elvenkings in the Green Dragon.